THE CRUCIBLE. To 1 November.

Mold

THE CRUCIBLE
by Arthur Miller

Clwyd Theatr Cymru (Anthony Hopkins Theatre) To 1 November 2003
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described 23 October
Captioned 1 November 2.30pm
Talkback 23,30 October
Runs 2hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 0845 330 3565
WWW.CLWYD-THEATR-CYMRU.CO.UK
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 October

Magnificent revival with all the excitement of a major premiere as if you'd never seen the play before.Occasionally, a production makes you think British theatre's full of exciting actors Those who've seemed dependable are outstanding, ones seen but not individually recalled impress themselves on the mind. This is such a case, one of the most astounding productions I've seen in some time, clear production-of-the-year' material.

Stark and bleak bare boards, greyed-out foliage and white lighting the stage's austerity sets off the full-blooded performances. From Simon Armstrong's harried Rev Parris on, each character leaps out afresh. Parris's self-important greed is there, but rooted in the university townsman unable to adapt to the farming community of 17th century Salem, fearful of this alien public's opinion. His hurried movement sets the pacethe production's urgent rapidity which, without losing variation and detail, gives the story a news-headline, pulse-quickening vitality.

The community representatives are terrific. John Cording's Giles Coey's a grizzled, rough-clad worker, confident in his sphere, brow-furrowingly puzzled when a wider world comes flooding in to it. Robert J Page as Francis Nurse matches his outdoor, steady-seasoned manner. In a background detail Corey puts a sympathetic arm round Nurse for all his own troubles, he recognises the sorrow of his neighbour at news of Rebecca Nurse's unjust condemnation.

Dyfed Thomas's rapacious Putnam's in the same mould, but there's a smooth boardroom plausibility already smearing over his manner. Here's the way a hardworking Puritan community begins to split on the way to corporate capitalism.

Deeper moral divisions run through the production. Louise Collins' Abigail moves from leering over John Proctor, her undulating movements belying the severe woman's dress, to mean calculation and gloating as she triumphs in the court: Authority's overturned as a little child misleads them all.

In a fine Welsh company, the outsider (like his character to Salem) is Malcolm Storry's magisterial in all senses Danforth. Hard-voiced and blinker-minded in court, he's reduced to soft-voiced pleading to seek Proctor's final-act confession. Yet he's still unable to see the need for legal processes to adapt to reality.

Storry's Danforth's forever on the move, agitatedly forcing reality inside his mindset, others rushing around in his wake until in the superbly choreographed act three climax (on video, it'd be a stop-and-rewind section to work out how the impact's gained) all the court parts like the Red Sea as Abigail and the hysterical girls swathe through them.

Several degrees lower, but recognisably in similar mould is Oliver Ryan's clerk Cheever. Ryan finely catches the shop-keeper neatness and precision with the ferrety features and weasel mind of the little man promoted to the foot of notability.

Against them there's Julian Lewis Jones' Proctor, learning his own stature under pressure, moving from easy anger at others to self-examination. And Vivien Parry's Elizabeth, a portrayal of a woman finding love through moral rather than physical feeling her denial of her husband's infidelity, the well-intended lie that dooms him comes after moments of internal struggle registered in tiny facial flickers.

And Steffan Rhodri's Hale, who seems to age at least a century during the action. At first he borders on the comic with his exorcism spells. By the end he's struggling towards the Enlightenment and reason. Rhodri's triumph is in the way he conveys this when silent or with only a few brief lines.

Terry Hands' triumph is in marshalling the entire company in a vivid, brilliant response thoughtful yet visceral and thrilling - to Miller's play.

Betty Paris: Non Haf Davies/Megan Roberts
Reverend Samuel Parris: Simon Armstrong
Tituba: Anni Domingo
Abigail Williams: Louise Collins
Susanna Wallcot: Rhiannon Morgan
Mrs Ann Putnam/Sarah Good: Jenny Livsey
Thomas Putnam: Dyfed Thomas
Mercy Lewis: Emily Pithon
Mary Warren: Michelle Luther
John Proctor: Julian Lewis Jones
Rebecca Nurse: Gerri Smith
Giles Corey: John Cording
Reverend John Hale: Steffan Rhodri
Mrs Elizabeth Proctor: Vivien Parry
Francis Nurse: Robert J Page
Ezekiel Cheever: Oliver Ryan
Marshall Herrick: Dyfrig Morris
Judge Hathorne: Ifan Huw Dafydd
Deputy-Governor Danforth: Malcolm Storry

Director/Lighting: Terry Hands
Designer: Martyn Bainbridge
Composer: Colin Towns
Sound: Matthew Wiliams
Assistant director: Phillip Breen

2003-10-23 10:17:10